What happens if the calls get to the other country?
In: Technology
Well in the EU it’s the same for all countries and they route 112 to the nearest emergency dispatch. While standing in one country and being connected to a different countries cell tower could cause issues they generally inform the correct emergency service and worst case a German ambulance will pick you up in Belgium.
Well here in Australia our emergency number is 000 (which was the worst by the way since when everyone had desk landline phones curious toddlers would stand on their tippy-toes trying to reach the phone on the desk and would always mash 000 since it was the only number they could reach) but if a US citizen is here and needs emergency services and just instinctively dials 911 it will redirect to 000.
So tl;dr I think any emergency number will just redirect to the country you are in. I could be completely wrong as I’m just basing it on what happens in Australia.
I assume you’re talking about cell phones in this case. The issue exists not just on country borders but locally as well and is handled the same way. When cell phone companies deploy new towers they have to submit paperwork to 911 centers with am address and coordinates for the tower as well as showing antennas and the direction and coverage angles. The 911 center then tells them the info they need to route 911 calls properly. However when it is on a border that form first goes to the 911 center where the tower is located and they make the determination based on the antenna direction and width of the signal which antennas they’re going to accept coverage for, with some additional back and forth the neighboring 911 center will take responsibility for the other antenna/s. Often you have where an antenna covers both areas, in that case it is a judgement call based off of population and other factors such as roads as to which one they route the call to. It isn’t set in stone and based on call volume they could change that down the road. In the event that a call does end up at the wrong 911 center once the dispatcher figures that out they can route the call to where it belongs.
Agree with other comments, just wanted to add this happens in all borders, even with cities (if they’re right next to each other) you can get routed to the “wrong” one just because of the tower you hit. When that happens, I ask the dispatcher which city I’ve connected with, and if it’s not the correct one I’m in, I will immediately request a transfer to the proper city. If I don’t know exactly where the border is, I will give my location, and let them figure it out 🙂
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